Uber loses delivery contracts from Apple and Starbucks
Is Uber worth up to $50 billion? Maybe, but many experts think it needs to diversify from, ahem, "transportation services" to get there. However, its plan to deliver high-end retail products, food and other goods has hit a snag, according to the WSJ. It reportedly lost plum delivery contracts from Apple and Starbucks to a more established service called Postmates. It also failed to reach an accord with Yelp's Eat24 and GrubHub, according to the same sources. So what went wrong? There's no word on why Apple and Starbucks decided to look elsewhere, but other companies report that Uber had problems with mundane details like insurance.
One company that did make an arrangement with Uber, Gilt Groupe, said that it was often forced to use other bike couriers due to Uber's $1,000 maximum insurance policy. (The company did say it was a "worthwhile initiative overall," however.) Meanwhile, a high-end New York jeweler said that during busy times, it often couldn't get enough Uber cars to deliver goods.
Despite the issues, Uber told WSJ that its delivery businesses is "still very nascent," and that's it's prepared to be patient. The company has rolled out a variety of different flavors of the services, including UberFresh for groceries, UberEATS for restaurant items, the UberRUSH bike courier service and UberCARGO in Hong Kong. Many UberX drivers apparently like the service as well, since it gives them some extra cash during the typically slow late morning hours. But there's apparently still some work ahead for Uber to figure out how to harness its 200,000 strong driver network to make deliveries as profitable as rides.
